Ebooks: the new reading + Audiobooks | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/series/ebooks-the-new-reading+audiobooks
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Fri, 18 Aug 2017 06:11:39 GMT2017-08-18T06:11:39Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Audiobooks are booming – and now there’s a chart to prove ithttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/audiobooks-booming-chart-bookseller-top-20
The Bookseller’s inaugural top 20 list, led by print bestsellers, is notable for the absence of children’s titles<p>“Listen to any good books on your holidays?” is a question that soon might not sound so weird. More and more of us are downloading audiobooks, thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets, and – no doubt – the <a href="http://serialpodcast.org" title="Serial: season one"><em>Serial</em></a> effect, as last year’s true-crime podcast reminded thousands of the joys of the spoken word.</p><p>The UK audio market rose by nearly 25% in 2014 – and has grown by an astonishing 170% in the past five years, making it the fastest growing market in publishing. The <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com" title=""><em>Bookseller</em></a> magazine has published an audio chart for the first time, with data from Audible, the Amazon-owned company that dominates the market for audiobook downloads. The inaugural top 20 list is led by print bestsellers, with <em>Grey</em> and <em>The Girl on the Train</em> up top, followed by some backlist titles (Bill Bryson’s <em>A Short History of Nearly Everything</em> is 13th) and a couple of Audible-produced sitcoms.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/audiobooks-booming-chart-bookseller-top-20">Continue reading...</a>AudiobooksEbooksTechnologyBooksSmartphonesMobile phonesPodcastingInternetDigital mediaMediaCultureMon, 17 Aug 2015 10:00:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/audiobooks-booming-chart-bookseller-top-20Photograph: /AlamyListening to audiobooks is popular among children, but the digital format may be too expensive for many families. Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: /AlamyListening to audiobooks is popular among children, but the digital format may be too expensive for many families. Photograph: AlamyAnna Baddeley2015-08-17T10:00:14ZWant to be seen as well read? Then listen to these shows…https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-lit
There are several fine websites that save you the trouble of having to read books for yourself<p>Over the years I have managed to fool&nbsp;a&nbsp;number of people into thinking&nbsp;I&nbsp;am terribly well read. My secret – well, three secrets – are Radio&nbsp;4's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk" title=""><em>Book of the Week</em></a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtlx" title=""><em>Book at Bedtime</em></a> and the <em>Classic Serial</em>, whose&nbsp;episodes I save up to devour all at once on iPlayer. These fabulous&nbsp;free&nbsp;audiobooks used to be awkward to listen to, involving balancing acts with&nbsp;laptops in steamy&nbsp;bathrooms.</p><p>My iPad has been a liberation. Using a tablet as a portable radio is by far the best way to access the internet's vast archive of free literary audio.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-lit">Continue reading...</a>EbooksInternetPodcastingTechnologyBooksCultureAudiobooksSun, 20 Oct 2013 11:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/20/new-reading-ebooks-silverblatt-litPhotograph: PRBookworm host Michael Silverblatt, whose archive of author interviews is 'incomparable'.Photograph: PRBookworm host Michael Silverblatt, whose archive of author interviews is 'incomparable'.Anna Baddeley2013-10-20T11:00:00ZWill we suffer being read to by an automated voice?https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazon
iSpeech could dramatically cut the cost of audiobooks. Shame the reading voice sounds like a bus announcement<p>Last week <a href="http://www.ispeech.org/" title="">iSpeech</a>, a text-to-speech startup, announced that it had acquired its first publishing client: Pearson. Claiming "the most natural-sounding TTS audio on the market" and previously known for driving-direction applications and audio cues for the home, iSpeech wants to help publishers automate the creation of audiobooks. The default voice on iSpeech is pleasantly lilting, but it's still definitely not human, and more akin to a pre-recorded bus announcement in its odd pauses and stumbles. Pearson intends to use the service primarily with textbooks; the robotic voice is definitely not ready for the emotional range and styles of fiction yet.</p><p>Text-to-speech has been tried many times before, but it's technically very difficult to pull off, and legally complex. Amazon got into trouble in 2009 when it rolled out basic text-to-speech for the Kindle. Publishers said that Amazon was abusing its copyright and it withdrew, much to the chagrin of, among others, the blind and partially sighted community, reliant on audiobooks, who briefly gained access to Amazon's vast library. The problem is the cost of creating an audiobook. This involves studio hire and voice talent and can reach thousands of pounds, which is often difficult to justify in sales, while iSpeech offers automation costing just fractions of a penny per word.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazon">Continue reading...</a>AudiobooksEbooksTechnologyBooksCultureAmazonKindlePearsonSun, 31 Mar 2013 00:05:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/audiobooks-ispeech-librivox-amazonJames Bridle2013-03-31T00:05:01ZA Spotify equivalent for audiobooks? Bring it on…https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify
Though it's currently limited to financial titles, a new streaming service could soon challenge Amazon's Audible<p>The best thing about <a href="http://bardowl.com/" title="">Bardowl</a>, touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is its name. Partly because it lets them have a cute animal logo but mostly because the press pack reveals it was dreamt up by the founder's wife after a Specials reunion concert.</p><p>It works like this: users pay £9.99 a month for unlimited access to Bardowl's library of audiobooks, which they stream via their iPhone or iPad. And, yes, you can listen offline. At the moment it's limited to business and self-help titles – <em>How to Get Rich</em> by Felix Dennis, <em>Overcoming Anxiety for Dummies</em>, that sort of thing – but later this year it will start to offer fiction and a wider selection of non-fiction.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotify">Continue reading...</a>AudiobooksEbooksTechnologyBooksCultureSat, 04 Aug 2012 23:05:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/05/bardowl-audiobooks-spotifyPhotograph: PABardowl, which is being touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is currently limited to business and self-help titles.Photograph: PABardowl, which is being touted as a Spotify for audiobooks, is currently limited to business and self-help titles.Anna Baddeley2012-08-04T23:05:10Z